All posts by Rand Simberg

Political Commentary

A Twofer

Senator Kerry is suspending his election campaign in respect for President Reagan’s passing.

I’m going to channel Mickey Kaus here, and note that this is a good deal for him. It lets him look classy, while minimizing his exposure to the American public for a few days, which should boost his poll ratings.

And in seriousness, his statement today was classy (surprisingly, to me). I didn’t expect him to say anything unclassy, but I thought he might avoid comment, or have minimal comment, so as not to upset his Bush (and Reagan) hating base.

General

History Trivia

By my count, we now have four living ex-Presidents–Ford, Carter, Bush I, and Clinton. Before President Reagan’s demise today, we had five, and I believe that’s the most that we’ve ever had. It seems unlikely that we’d have ever had more than that in our nation’s history, given the lengths of terms and the ages at which presidents normally become president, but does anyone know for sure?

Of course, if one wanted to be macabre, one could start a pool on who will be the next to go, and if it will occur before the current president joins their ranks (which of course depends a lot on what happens in November…).

General

Requiescat In Pacem

Ronald Reagan has died, a day before the sixtieth anniversary of the Normandy landing. It looks like Andrew Lloyd’s sources were right a few days ago. Given this weekend’s somber remembrances, it might be appropriate to replay his D-Day speech from twenty years ago (though that would put a lot of pressure on President Bush to deliver a real humdinger tomorrow if it’s not to be overshadowed).

I never voted for him (I voted Libertarian), but he was one of the great presidents of the twentieth century, and I’m glad he won both times (and was at the time, considering the alternatives). The Soviet Union may have collapsed eventually, but there’s zero doubt in my mind that he accelerated the process, and broke us out of the failed policy of containment. He was a man of great vision, and in that, we haven’t had a president since, including the present one, that was his match.

Of course, in my mind he’s been dead for years, and it’s sad that we give so much reverence to the body and too little to the mind. I don’t know if he was suffering toward the end, but this has to be a sorrow tinctured with relief for his long-suffering family.